Monday, December 24, 2012

Over the loud speaker at the Minneapolis International Airport, I heard the boarding call for my flight. This was the beginning of my new adventure. 2012 got off to a very quick start. I traveled across the globe to do a Leadership Training School at YWAM Lausanne in Switzerland, where I am now living and continuing my work as a missionary with YWAM. As I've reflected on 2012, I am so thankful for what God has done in my life in the past year and am excited to see where He leads me in 2013!

Preaching in my home church in Minnesota on finding our hope in Christ.

Sharing the Gospel with over 5,000 people in June during our "Regeneration Outreach" (click here to watch the video) during the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland.

Successfully completing a "French Intensive Seminar" (click here to see photos) through the University of the Nations. At 8 hours a day for 4 weeks straight, it sure was intense!

Leading the campus operations at YWAM Lausanne and learning from amazing leaders.

Thank you to those of you who faithfully pray for me and partner with me financially. It is such a privilege to work with our Father to raise up hundreds of people each year to carry the Light of the Gospel to the Nations of the earth, to share His hope and love! Thank you for being a part of the adventure!

I pray this Christmas season is filled with much joy, hope and love as we celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

In my last update, I shared how I was participating in a "French Intensive Seminar" here at YWAM Lausanne. Well, I sucessfully completed the course - whew! It was intense to say the least. I'm glad I took on the challenge to do the seminar to get a basic foundation in French. This photo on the left is the students/staff who were involved with the French Seminar.Just a few days after the French Seminar ended, I took on the role of leading the operations here at YWAM Lausanne. It's been going really well so far and I have been learning a lot. I feel like this is very equipping for the future as I continue in ministry. It's fun to be able to work with so many different people and to see how God is always working in peoples' lives.

Prayer Day

We recently had a "Prayer Day" (click here to read more about it) here at YWAM Lausanne on the 26th of October. Four times per year the staff, students, guest speakers and visitors here at YWAM Lausanne all gather for a full day of prayer, worship and fasting. We pray for various things that are happening around the world, our outreach teams that are in multiple countries, our city we live in and whatever else God puts on our hearts to pray for. It's amazing to focus an entire day to prayer. This photo above is from a prayer day. We have a gigantic world map that we walk over and pray for nations that God puts on our hearts.One thing that I know is true: Prayer changes things!!

~ THANK YOU ~I'm very grateful for those of you who have partnered with me prayerfully and financially in ministry. It's amazing to see people being ignited with the Gospel, being equipped to share the Word of God and seeing young men and women who are passionately taking the Gospel to the Nations. You help to make this possible. Thank you!

Monday, October 1, 2012

c.) When it asks you (in "Step 4") to write an encouragement, include the text "Donation for Tyler Dean" so they know the donation is for me.

Option 2 - Donate by Check

a.) Make check payable to YWAM. DO NOT write my name anywhere on the check due to tax purposes. They will mail back your check if you write my name on it.

b.) Include a note in the envelope that says, "Donation for Tyler Dean".

c.) Then mail the check to:

YWAM Tyler

c/o Accounting Dept.

P.O. Box 3,000

Garden Valley, TX 75771-3000

For Monthly Supporters

If you would like to do a monthly automatic withdrawal through your banking account or do a automatic donation with your credit card, just let me know and I can let you know how to do one of these simple options.

I'm very grateful for those of you who have partnered with me prayerfully and financially in ministry. It's amazing to see people being ignited with the Gospel, being equipped to share the Word of God and seeing young men and women who are passionately taking the Gospel to the Nations. You help make this possible! Thank you!

Monday, September 3, 2012

Two weeks ago, I started a French Intensive Seminar here at
YWAM Lausanne. The
seminar is 4 weeks, 5 days a week, and 8+ hours a day. That's why it's
called "intensive"! I'm excited to be learning French. It gets old quick
when you go to the grocery store and don't know what the cashier is
saying to you. Or when you feel lead to talk to someone about the Lord in
the Lausanne city square and come to find out that you cannot
communicate with them because you don't know their language - French.

Roughly 170 million
people in the world speak French either as a first or second language.
That's a lot of people! 30 contries in the world have French as
their official language with several other countries speaking French as
a secondary language.

Knowing French will
open up many more doors for ministry, not only here in Switzerland, but
around the world!

~ PRAYER REQUEST ~

Would you take a
few minutes right now to pray for me that I would understand as much
as possible during the French course and that I would be able to
retain what I've learned. Also pray that I do not become discouraged
and impatient if I understand it right away. I am starting from
scratch with French so I need to be patient with myself.

Thank you for
faithfully praying for me. It's much appreciated and very encouraging.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Greetings
from Lausanne, Switzerland! After arriving here in early June, I jumped right
into the swing of things getting ready for our "REGENERATION
OUTREACH" at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland. We
just finished our week and a half outreach and had an incredible time sharing
the Gospel with thousands of people from all over the world! Each night we had
different performances at our stage, such as music, dancing, a world champion
unicycler, children's ministries and more. Throughout the night, people watched
our performances and during the performances, the performers shared the gospel
and we had about 45 YWAMers in the audiance talking and sharing the gospel with
the people watching. Throughout the outreach, at least 12 people made a
decision to follow Jesus as their Lord and Savior! We were able to share the
gospel with over 5,000 people from our stage and were able to talk to hundreds
of people one-on-one and pray for many as well!

Thank
you again for your continued prayers and support. I look forward to sharing
more stories of what God is doing.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

I've had an amazing time so far since being back in Minnesota
and California seeing my family and catching up with friends and also
preaching! It's quickly coming to and end, though. Wednesday was a big day for
me - I received my visa for Switzerland! Thank you for your prayers!! I
fly back to Switzerland on June 5th to begin my work there.

Financial Update

Before going back to
Switzerland, I need to raise an additional $900 (God has already provided
$2,100!!). I am also trusting God to provide an additional $700 in monthly
support as well. If you would like to partner with me financially and be a part
of what God is doing around the world, that would be a huge blessing! Below are
ways you can donate, either a special gift or monthly financial support.

A Big Switch

I am currently in the
process of switching all of my financial donations from YWAM Pismo Beach
to the YWAM base in Tyler, Texas. It'll be really easy to remember where
to donate to me now (Tyler, TX)! So from now on, ALL donations, whether
it's monthly support or a special gift, goes to YWAM Tyler in Texas. They
process donations for thousands of YWAM missionaries who are overseas, so they
do it very well. There are various ways to donate. Below I've explained how to
go about donating, whether you want to make a special donation or monthly
donation.

Donating By Check

Make Check Payable To: YWAM

**DO
NOT write my name ANYWHERE on the check.

Please enclose a note indicating the donation
is for Tyler Dean.

Mail
Check To:

YWAM Tyler

c/o Accounting Department

P.O. Box 3,000

Garden Valley, TX 75771-3000

Donating by Automatic
Withdrawal, Credit Card or Bill Pay

If
you would like to donate with one of these easy options, just let me know and I
can let you know how to do so!

Thank you for your continued prayers and generosity! Together we
can impact many people all over the world with the Gospel! Thank you!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

This week is "National Volunteer Week" and my traveler insurance company called International Volunteer Card is running a contest for volunteers to have a chance to win a free flight! A friend of mine wrote a short essay explaining why I deserve to be nominated to win this free flight and I was recently notified from Int'l Volunteer Card that I was nominated as one of their "Top Ten Volunteers" to enter into the voting phase of the contest!

Here is where you come into play:

The voting opened this morning (Monday, April 16th). I have until Thursday, April 19th to collect as many votes as possible. Would you please take a 30 seconds to vote for me and spread the word to your friends to vote for me, too? This would be such a huge blessing to me as I travel quite often.

Friday, March 23, 2012

My time here in Switzerland has been incredible! God has been teaching me so much and giving me amazing vision and goals for future ministry. My apologies for terrible communication since arriving in Europe. Every time I thought I could maybe write an update, something else came up. Now, I'd love to catch you up to date!

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone who helped me financially to get over here to Switzerland and for making this school a reality! The night before I flew over to Switzerland, I was still in need of $195. Before falling asleep, I asked God to provide the remainder before I boarded my flight and I felt like He said that He would provide every penny I needed. The next morning, I woke up and found out that someone had donated exactly $195.30. How cool is that?! God is so faithful! He provided me the exact amount and even .30 cents extra! So thank you for your prayers and support. I am greatly blessed.

I arrived in Switzerland without jet lag (praise God!) and was greeted by a friend who did her DTS in Pismo Beach a year ago. I had an excellent traditional Swiss meal, which obviously included cheese. The next day I arrived at YWAM Lausanne and shortly after dove right into the Leadership Training School. It has been an incredible three months (and has gone SO fast!) and God has taught me so much and I’ve met many amazing new friends! Throughout the course, we went over various different topics such as integrity as a leader, Jesus’ leadership styles, a Biblical Worldview, the character of a leader, problem solving, decision making, planning and much more. Along with classes, we worked very hard on our "final projects", which is basically a five-year ministry plan that is very intense. God has been revealing Himself to me in amazing ways and I feel like He's been speaking to me a lot about what He wants me to do next, which I'm excited to share with you soon! We finished our final lecture about 45 minutes ago and graduate on Monday evening. It's weird to think the school is already over. I know without a doubt in my mind that I was supposed to do this school and am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to learn from amazing leaders from around the world.

BIO

Tyler Dean grew up in a small town in northern Minnesota called Grand Marais. He now works as a full-time Christian missionary with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Lausanne, Switzerland. Check out his website for pictures, stories and testimonies on what God is doing in his life and around the world! Enjoy....

My sweet little friend, Andrea.

Juan's Wife

This is Juan's wife, the lady who I wrote about in the blog post titled, "My latest outreach to Nicaragua: August 21-September 5". Check it out...cool story!

Leno

This my my friend, Leno, from Ticuantepe, Nicaragua. I met him in May of 2009 and saw him again two months later in August of 2009. We were able to bless him with three pairs of new eye glasses!! Next time I go back, I hope to bring a wheel chair with me to give to him.

Glue Boys

This is a picture of our team with some of the street kids, also known as the glue boys, in Masaya, Nicaragua.

Diriamba, Nicaragua

Homeless Ministry

Chris & myself in Oceano, California

Homeless Ministry

Modesto, California

AIDS Hospital

Saigon, Vietnam

Prayer

Shelly praying for a man in Thailand.

Prayer in Southeast Asia

On a prayer walk in southeast Asia.

Solar Serve

In S.E. Asia, we worked with a ministry that constructed solar cookers. They give the solar cookers to the poor & needy around Asia and also sell them around the world. The ministry hires deaf people so they're able to provide for their families!

Surf Night

On Thursday nights, we had a dinner where we invited surfers to our house to fellowship!

Surf's Up

Surfing in Vietnam...The lady thought we were professionals! :) Not so much!